Hibernia is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Fl ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States. It is located off

US 17 U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 (US 17), also known as the Coastal Highway, is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that spans in the Southeastern United States. It runs close to the Atlantic Coast for much of its len ...

, on the western bank of the

St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...

. It is the home of historic St. Margaret's Episcopal Church and Cemetery.

History

Hibernia was an area of Florida settled by Irish immigrant, George Fleming (1760–1821), who received a 1,000-acre land grant from the Spanish governor of East Florida for his military service. George Fleming built a plantation in 1790 and it was named Hibernia Plantation (in what is now Hibernia, Florida and

Fleming Island, Florida Fleming Island is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Clay County, Florida, United States. It is located southwest of downtown Jacksonville, on the western side of the St. Johns River, off US 17. As of the 2020 censu ...

), it was named after the Latin word for Ireland. When he died in 1821, the plantation was left to his son, Col. Lewis Michael Fleming (1798–1862). Lewis Michael Fleming had a large family, he was married twice and had ten children. After the civil war ended, his second wife Margaret Seton converted the damaged plantation house into a tourist resort. A U.S. post office was established at Hibernia on June 19, 1849, but its name was changed on October 17, 1853, to Magnolia Mills, and on July 30, 1866, it was changed to Green Cove Springs. The Hibernia post office was re-established on February 16, 1855, and remained open until May 15, 1931, when it was closed and the area assigned to Green Cove Springs.Bradbury, Alford G., and Hallock, E. Story, ''A Chronology of Florida Post Offices'', reprinted 1993, Port Salerno:Florida Classics Library.

References

Unincorporated communities in Clay County, Florida Unincorporated communities in the Jacksonville metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Florida {{ClayCountyFL-geo-stub